Over a five month period, Panda Security conducted several audits with a large state agency in the United States to assess the level of risk pertaining to hidden and undetected infection points. Due to the confidential nature of this customer, we cannot disclose the agency name. The information learned from this case is a great demonstration of how even the “well-protected” networks require more effective tools to fend off the latest generation of malware.

This agency by nature is obligated to enforce rigorous security policies to protect against unauthorized activity, especially when they are responsible for securing a large network of sensitive information. Some of the restrictions the agency enforces on its users include:

– Users have limited rights to the network

– Users can’t modify anything within the system directory

– Users must access the Internet through a secured proxy.

In such a secure environment, it should be extremely difficult for malware to cause any harm to the network. Unfortunately, even with these strict access rules, Panda Security found various dangerous intrusions in the agency’s network caused by malware.

The following case study covers an audit spanning more then 4,500 PCs with active, up-to-date anti-malware software from a leading vendor. These PCs were analyzed against a set criteria consisting of hidden active or latent malware along with their associated vulnerabilities.